


A Soldier's Tale: The Rainforest Wars

by RiptideZ



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-14 01:46:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5724877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiptideZ/pseuds/RiptideZ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the 2160s, there was a war that was unparalleled by everything that had come before it. It lead to the end of the Modern Age and the signed the death note of Nations. The Interplanetary War was the birthright of the UNSC, and along the way, Captain Jeremiah Mendez documented his part of the conflict. Inspired by the military classic mentioned in Ghosts of Onyx.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A End to War

Welcome to The Rainforest Wars, a fanfiction adaptation of an in-universe novel from the Halo series, A Soldier's Tale: The Rainforest Wars by Captain Jeremiah Mendez. This is a personal tale set during the 2162 conflict, centuries before the Covenant War and the UNSC. This story is not about the future, but rather the unity of Humankind and the creation of the UEG and later the UNSC. This book was popularized by the events of the Halo novel: Ghosts of Onyx. It's a good read, I suggest reading it.

Anyhow, please read and review. I'm sorry to my old readers for not updating for a long time. I've been busy with newer projects and my personal life. This is the reboot, I won't do the full novel but I'll try to focus on the important parts of what I think this novel was about. Thank you for reading. In the future, expect some collaboration with other authors. I will inform you when chapters are written by others rather than me.

…

Welcome to "A Soldier's Tale: The Rainforest Wars," a non-profit fan-produced fiction product under the ownership of set penname: RiptideZ.

DISCLAIMER: All intellectual property revealed in this work belongs to their rightful owner(s). RiptideZ, the author, owns only that of his intellectual assets. Please Read and Critique constructively via private messaging or review.

…

["Chapter One: An End to War"]

[CPT Jeremiah D. Mendez (URNA Army, O-3)]

…

I remember the war like it was yesterday, and maybe in fact it was yesterday.

In all the two years that followed that conflict, I have focused on the one tale that has kept me motivated on telling this story. I remember it vividly like it was yesterday. It may have to do with the fact that I kept waking every night with the memory in mind after watching hours of battle footage roll through my dreams. I remember it and I can't forget, the battles or the people. The war is always with me; it forces me to remember but the memory lacks one defining part. It lacks truth for others to learn. Those who do not understand and cannot comprehend the lessons learned are doomed to repeat the same mistakes that the previous generation had committed.

It isn't the battles or the death that motivates me, but the story and the history; the way we remember the truth is the most important aspect of war. I am motivated by my memory to spread the truth so that others can know and understand why we fought. We all of Mankind's fighting has happened over and over again.

See, before the conflict, I had been a teacher. A history professor of an online institute in Seattle, Washington even though I was a Brooklyn boy. It is my nature to need to remember history, because I've lived with and within it all my life. I need to be able to express it now however because I have become a part of that history and a part of that truth and before the truth becomes muddled in rumor and controversy, I need to set the record straight. Before it goes stale and out of everyone's minds.

The final day of the Rainforest Wars, the Western War, the Amazonian Conflict; by whatever name that conflict is referred to by, I personally prefer to call it an opening to the next era of history. The end of the Rainforest Wars are a new chapter in the life of Humankind. Wars tend to end and begin eras; to me it's rather strange but I don't think I have the energy to write a master thesis about that. I'm sure I've written too many of those in my lifetime.

There is something about war that seems absolute and definite and yet the beginning of something new. I was never a supporter for conflict, nor was I a supporter of fighting. Personally, when the kids would get into fights at the Brooklyn school where I actually taught, I never cared who started it or who threw the first punch or who got hurt worse. I sent them both off to detention because it was violent no matter the situation.

War instead made me into a fighter, made me a soldier. I was no volunteer in the conflict, rather I was a reservist with the strict goal of avoiding the battlefield at any cost. At this point, I think I understand why my colleagues always told me to go Navy. The National Guard, even if it's not the forward deployment force, they will definitely see conflict, if war does occur.

For a history professor, it was a stupid mistake; I should have looked back to every conflict the United States had ever fought and understand that the National Guard is still a part of an Army and therefore a part of war by extension. The Rainforest Wars was a conflict that reintroduced the draft after three decades of an all-volunteer force.

I was no fan of war, but I loved and still do love history and I think those two subjects, even for how much I try to separate the two, go hand and hand. Just like the way we as people love to separate politics from religion and yet they intertwine all the time.

I am telling the story of the war that turned me into a soldier. This is a tale shared by all warfighters of all nations, and yet it is a single tale told by a single man. I remember the final day of the Rainforest Wars and while a day of peace it has made me remember war ever since. It has made me, I'm not sure whether true or not, but I sort of miss war. I have a need to go back and see the conflict, to feel the terror and adrenaline and excitement of pounding shells, exploding bombs, and mad gunfire.

It has never left me and I'm not sure it ever will.

On the final day of the conflict, as the ceasefire was being negotiated off in distant Rio, I had found myself in Sao Luis at a small restaurant. It was built out of a bombed out McDonald's, a relic from the coup that followed the rise of fascists in Brazil.

The crooked roof had peeling gray paint all along its surface. Some of the remaining windows were littered with spider web cracks, and even years after the coup, the ground outside was still littered with dust and dirt kicked up by looters and makeshift hand grenades.

The Marines had been occupying the town and the insurgents in the town had long been uprooted from their hiding places; rather it's a good thing when the city's population favored the occupiers rather than their own fighters. It made transition and defense of the population centers so much easier.

Anyhow, I had been given leave from keeping my men from invading a bowling alley in one of the more dingy parts of town, near the slums with all the nightclubs and prostitution rings.

When I walked in, I had pretty much expected there to be nobody within given the dusted windows made it difficult to see inside. To my surprise, a family had set up a mom-and-pop shop in the abandoned building and had managed to repower the old solar panel array and the building's electric generator.

They didn't have soda or any burgers, sure, but they made up with their own local traditions and delicacies. The Latino food had been grafted from what seemed to be house grown crops, what little the local agrarian sector could provide, and the relief supplies brought in by the URNA's logistics.

There were a few Brazilian families sitting around talking in hushed voices. They didn't seem in any hurry to leave for anywhere and they did not seem interested in the American that had walked in without much of a care. The appearance of white men in military gear in your village deeper in the Amazon often created quite the scare, but here, in one of the major cities, it wasn't really anything special.

For many, I was just another customer of the day. When you've seen so many impoverished or agrarian societies burn down their own villages or pick up and leave on the road at the sight of our tanks and war planes, it is almost impossible to describe what a relief it felt like to see people not treat you like a plague.

I'll put it in simpler terms, it was the first time I felt tensionless around a civilian population outside North America.

I ordered my food and I took a seat in this recluse corner of the restaurant, I wasn't in any mood for company. The day had been long, tiring, and rather bland.

Setting up sandbags, doing mine clearing, and walking patrols are only exciting the first time. Then everything becomes routine; it's been routine for almost a year now.

Playing the grunt and running operation in the endless jungle and mud-caked Amazon Basin. The first time we stepped off the boat and into the rainforest in Venezuela, I had been mesmerized by the sense of scale, now it was just another dump, another place to screw over.

Like how the Marines have been referring to every place they go since the century before in Iraq. Fucking welcome to the Suck, they said. They still call it the Suck. Now it's just the Suck isn't a desert but a really muddy rainforest, truth be told, I never saw much of a difference in the two.

The food, I don't really remember what I ordered, I'm not even sure what it tasted like, but it was a while ago. I just know that the next day I was having the runs. It was still good if my memory suits me well.

I remember reading the news on my mobile phone as I sat in the bombed out McDonald's. Somehow when we took the city, we didn't screw the Internet or the electrical lines. I guess we got lucky because among other strange jobs I had to do in the past, setting up power lines had been one of them. Here was a lucky break because cutting up logs and tying wires for seventeen hours a day is not fun whatsoever.

The news beyond the Rainforest Wars on that final day was still very doom and gloom.

Conflict between UN Peacekeepers and Io rebels had broken out again overnight killing 43 civilians and 12 combatants, nine being the UN Peacekeepers and the other three rebel gunman.

China had frozen assets to some private military firm in the Gobi after they had dropped chemical weapons on some no-name village.

The Peace Talks were still going strong though there was still noticeable standoffish emotion coming from both parties between the FSAN and URNA negotiators. Things like national sovereignty and recognition, the protection of the environment, trade, acquisition of Mexico. The whole Nine Yards, it looked like the ceasefire wasn't going to end anytime soon but no one was budging on any of terms. The only thing the two governments seemed to agree on was that the war needed to end.

Plus MNDI commanders were already preparing to pack up and go home. The URNA allies from Europe and Asia had seen to their job I guess and were ready to head home. MNDI, or Mindy as it was known to the grunts, was the Multi-National Defense Initiative, a kind of successor to NATO but included more countries around the world.

The URNA was supposed to finish negotiations since it was technically our war, not that I don't like the foreigners having our backs but sometimes it feels like they just want to say they were there and then let us do all the work.

I was reading along my newsfeed when some little brat came up to me and was looking for a piece of me. Some six year old dressed in blue jeans and a dirtied white shirt. While FSAN wasn't much of a dictatorship or fascists for that matter, they weren't exactly the model society. Poor Human Rights record, a lack of civilian protections, no public representation, lack of social services, and an asymmetrical infrastructure model that only focused on large population centers rather than trying to raise the national average for the entire society.

"Hey mister!"

The Brazilian boy did not look the happiest as he scowled when I did not respond.

"Mister. Hey, I'm talking too you!"

"What do you want boy?" I remember being pretty grouchy coming off work, it doesn't exactly help when you have to run the show of a hundred something eighteen-twenty somethings all looking to get some and to go play tag with the ladies around town. The greenhorns always seem to act like ten years old. Maybe it was just me but my men weren't exactly the best behaved.

"You're a soldier? Right?"

"Yeah, I'm a soldier."

"What are you doing here?"

"Eating a sandwich. Why do you think I'm here?"

The boy looked annoyed but didn't say anything. I had a pissed off day, I wasn't in the mood to play caretaker for the kid and he ran off eventually after finding me uninteresting.

I didn't engage in a conversation with the kid but it has since struck a chord within me about the whole principle of different generations. The separation between the young and old and the disconnect that occurred between the two that eventually brought ideologies to war. Why do we never learn?

Why do our children, our kids end up repeating the same mistakes we did? We've had thousands of years to realize it and yet we continue to fail to stop war. To stop our own bloodshed.

I'm not exactly sure why we fight wars. Maybe it's a matter of species' population control; maybe it has come to a point that other natural aspects that would have kept our species at bay had failed and the only way to curtail a growing invasive human population was through the killing of ourselves, an ingrained nature-made kill switch placed into every living being. Or maybe because it's in our nature to fight; it's ironic but true that Humanity does not evolve or advance itself unless it's under some form of pressure, more often than not, a form of conflict and bloodshed. War has been a catalyst of invention for centuries and has propelled mankind farther than any other activity Humanity can implore itself in.

War created tools, fire, and metal. War created swords, guns, and gunpowder. War created explosives, created steam, created electricity. It created transportation, domestication, mass communication, etc. It has led to the automobile, wireless technologies, atomic energy, and all sorts of other technologies.

War has helped Mankind advance beyond the cave and the dark. And yet we seem to have never mastered war. Almost like it controls us.

I'm writing this tale, my own tale about what it means to be a soldier in hopes that future generations may be able to learn from our mistakes. To learn to master themselves and master war. To prevent our mistakes as we grow closer together as a species. Something will have to change for us to gain some measure of peace.

A month after I ran into the kid, another child actually motivated the individual in me to push toward trying to understand why we wage war and why I want the next generation to learn from our mistakes. My men and I had gathered at a nice Italian restaurant in the Bronx when I ran into him.

A young boy, one probably not a day over 6 had walked up to me, bravely and with a confident pounce in every step. His shoes lit up as he took a step, the red and blue lights that flashed imitating that of a police car with the expected creativity found in child's attire, he came to our table and stared me down.

He wore a white shirt with a cartoon triceratops on the print side, his small jeans hung loosely and cartoonish from his boyish frame. He had a confident air to him, one that involuntarily brought you eye to eye with this child, the boy's pair colored an innocent, electric blue that captured everything he saw.

He didn't even address me directly and childish questioned a respectful collage of war photos.

"What's that for?" He asked me.

I said nothing and continued to eat, the kids had asked this before but were often pulled away by overly concerned parents. Why this moment would be any different, I had asked myself a little too confidently.

No parent stepped forward. He just looked at me and so I turned back to him. He addressed me, "What's with your weird picture-wall?"

"It's a collage."

"Who are those people?'

"People."

"What people?"

"People I knew, people that I love."

"Why aren't they here then?"

"They're memories, how could they be here?"

"The people that care about us are always with us. No matter where ever they are, but they should also always be with you. That's what family is for. They never turn their back on you when you need them." He said frowning at my obvious disinterested retort, for a kid he sounded very sage-like, then again most kids are.

"Well, I don't need them right now. They don't need to be here."

"Well, who are they then?"

"People you don't need to know about, something of a memory from a while ago you would never understand at your age." I stated, maybe a little too harshly, but the boy remained unflinching, unrelenting, unfazed.

"Nu-uh! I'm old enough, I'm seven. I'm grown up!" His voice pouted obviously, a pair of parents in the corner of the lot at another table was staring in our direction; I assumed the boy was theirs. I ignored their stares of helplessness toward the kid. Children often have an uncanny ability to ignore authority, I could sympathize with his parents.

I simply looked at the boy dead in the eyes with a look that would have scared off even the experienced thug, a look that could have made the greenhorn in past me wet his pants. The guy first out of boot camp believing the whole world was his bitch. That kid died away after my first bout of combat.

The boy however did not falter, if he had any doubts at that second, I could not tell, I forgot how intelligent and wise a child could be, their minds full of ideas and ways of thinking I had long lost many years before.

"They were friends I lost a while ago, they're faraway now. Somewhere I will not be able to reach until my time comes."

The boy responded wisely, almost too mature for his age, yet again. "You fought in the war? Did you kill a lot of bad guys?"

Fucking sage man; I wasn't sure if he was just a sixty year old man locked in a seven year old body.

"I fought in the war. I don't consider killing a good thing kid, and I don't consider them bad people. Just misunderstood. Something I think you shouldn't worry about."

"But I'm old enough and I know a lot of things about the war!"

"How would you know?"

"Because Uncle Bobby and Dada, fought in it!"

"Oh, isn't that interesting." I looked toward the parents again who were still staring from outside the volume range of our conversation. I gave the father a mock salute, he nodded back. The man was around my buddy, Delagarza's age, about 38 or so, pretty young. I myself was heading for 50, being 48 years old.

"My grandpapa also fought in the War too; he's a special man!"

"Why is that?" I asked interested.

""He still has two arms but he can't walk, he has no legs and yet he smiles and grins like everyone else. He doesn't care if he lost his legs because he got new ones that make him stronger than anyone. His new legs are wheels, he moves faster than me and I'm the fastest kid in my school!"

"That's very cool, indeed." I said humoring the boy. It wasn't surprising, some veterans who became amputees learned to live with their loss, however, many still could not adapt. Fortunately for this boy's grandfather, it seemed he overcame his problem. "I'd like to meet him sometime maybe."

"Hey, Mr. what do you think about people, if you went to war, doesn't that make you hate the people you had to fight?" He asked quickly cutting off my train of thought.

"No, I don't hate them because they fought for what they believed in and I did the same. We were all equals and all deserve to be treated as such, there were no good guys or bad guys, everyone had their moment in that war."

"Then you like all people? Even the ones who are called evil." He asked.

"I won't say I like them, but they are all humans and will be treated as if they were people through and through."

"Well if there will always be good guys and bad guys, how will there not be another war?" He asked. "Especially if you don't like them but accept them, that doesn't mean that they will do the same for you, right?"

"You're a smart kid…, you're right, I don't know… Wait. I know why there won't be another war. Because we have people like you, who can lead everyone to do better for the future." I thought about it and I recognized that the future did not depend on me, but it depended upon the next generation to make up for our decisions. The future will depend on how they grow up and whether they do learn.

The children that will grow up not knowing the feeling of bombs being dropped over their head must be prepared to end our addiction to conflict. They have all the tools before them to rebuild and master war. All they need is a good step forward. I'm hoping that maybe in some way, this book can be a catalyst for that step in the right direction. A step toward some lasting peace, for our children and then their children and then their children. A future that we can be proud to bring our children into. A future that we can all be proud of.

This story I'm trying to tell is to end war. To bring about an End to War itself.

This is the story of one soldier and many others in the Rainforest Wars.

…

Chapter 1: An End to War

Words: 3562

Franchise: Halo


	2. Know Your Enemy

Welcome to Chapter Two, previously I wrote an actual timeline but as time has passed, I've realized somethings may happen but others are unlikely and beyond that, it's painful and tiring trying to tell a story about the future, especially filling in the blanks. If I want to make a story relevant, especially a year by year timeline, it must be kept to a century. Not break into 150 year territory because that is where I start losing myself.

Instead, I'll leave it up to the reader to decide how the future between the Rainforest Wars and the second decade of the 21st century play out. I'll give general ideas of what happened in between but I'll keep it vague in favor of just telling the story. Read and Review guys, I need the feedback.

…

["Chapter Two: Know Your Enemy"]

[CPT Jeremiah D. Mendez (URNA Army, O-3)]

…

To understand why the Rainforest Wars occurred, you must be able to decipher the underlying issues and what defines the participating parties at war.

Why do soldiers fight? Who are the leaders? What are their motivations? What form of inhabitance do they live? What is the population and people like?

These type of questions can make all the different in a conflict because it can go as far as determine the victor before the conflict even begins or what the goals the warring states seek in their end game or they can help understand how events related to the greater conflict will affect the war's aftermath and the consequences that follow its end.

A great example of how the ideologies and the systematic identity of a party can influence conflicts include that of Nazi Germany during the Second World War and the Soviet Union during the Cold War arms race.

In World War Two, Germany under Nazi rule was heavily fascist as many of us know, placing the value of the group above that of the individual but rather than be based on principle of a top-down governing system where the government had control of everything in the society. The economy, education, military, science, religion, etc. There were even some cases where such fascist dictatorships would directly meddle into the lives of the citizenship who were mere puppets to the greater government which in many ways, ruled over the populace in every portion of recognizable society. The grand design was meant to favor the state above all else and that the best way to protect the nation and state was to give absolute power to said government of the nation, hence, the state.

Germany set itself up early as a regional and dominating power of Europe following declaration of war in 1939. It used revolutionary technologies and tactics to win its wars abroad and seize great swaths of territory. While the sudden expansionist movements were unexpected, they were very much similar to the behavior of old age empires slowly dominating territory by taking town after town until reaching the enemy capital and seizing it. Germany used a groundbreaking campaign tactic referred to as blitzkrieg, or "Lightning War." The style of warfare is considered an application of war and stems most probably from the American Civil War with General Sherman's "March to the Sea."

The use of mechanized infantry and fast moving vehicles to transverse large regions of terrain and take targets quickly made the German military both unpredictable and relentless. Their society of Nazi Germany is most likely what created the necessary ingredients that would create a deadly and relentless killing machine out of the German Armed Forces.

German society following Adolf Hitler's rise to power was highly nationalist and socialist, creating a society of imperial consumerism. The states conquered by Germany would feed the German people and the German war machine overtime as Germany lacked the supplies on its own to maintain a standing conflict after the loss of its empire following the First World War.

This nature to German behavior created a very singular relationship focused around the belief of nonaggression, "I won't attack you right now because I got bigger problems, but next time I will kill you" persona. There was not much mutual trust or unity between that of the Axis Powers unlike the Allied adversaries. It was also a very big reason why Germany and the Soviet Union were not able to maintain a treaty through the conflict. It would also lead to the Third Reich's downfall as the need to assault Russia for supplies to maintain a faltering war machine and the ideological paranoia of allies created a situation where allies quickly turned open enemies.

Hitler was also very much an incompetent leader though rather charismatic, I am shameful to admit, as a speaker and popular face. He was not a very good military strategist and neither was he much of an open minded tacticians as he made many military and logistic blunders into the later years of the war when he stopped listening to the advice of his generals and made decisions of his own, favoring the targeting of population centers in Russia and going focusing on a basis of ideology rather than logistics.

The German military during the invasion of Russia was ordered to invade Stalingrad rather than turn south toward Russia's Southwestern oil fields.

Hitler also prevented the deployment of new and advanced technologies on a mass scale due to personal beliefs and a lack of interest in improvisation. Developments like the jet engine, limited stealth technology, night vision, missiles, guided bombs, submarine warfare, etc.

He failed to listen to the trained advice of his military leaders including that of General Rommel and the base builders of the European coastline defense. These failures would eventually cumulate into the defeat of the Nazis and ending the War in Europe.

In the Soviet Union, following the Second World War a similar situation was noted in their communist practices. The system of communism is basically the application of economics and governance from the bottom up favoring communities and the group and lauding that of individuals and individuality and free markets like that of capitalism, their ideological opponent exemplified by the United States during the Cold War.

Communism sprouted in post war China under Mao Zedong and thrived during and after the Second World War under Joseph Stalin. Under Soviet and Chinese communism, the government was run by a dictatorship that favored absolute rule of government and the forced equality through terror and group think.

Again, the group worked toward the betterment of the society and was highly militaristic like Germany under Hitler but where motivation for change in the population in Germany was brought on by the blame of outside forces, under Stalin's system, a revolution was birthed from inter-financial group stigmas that led to the end of the business class or "middle" class in Russia.

Russian society for the most part was very agrarian and lacked internal competition between different economic parties as rather all finances and industries was controlled by the state. This meant very low living standards among basic citizens along with a lack of basic rights or liberties of the individual.

Where the Soviet Union had a basic and traditional society internally. The United States and much of West Europe was extensively competitive and built on an industry designed to challenge and foster radical designs. This would eventually help the West win the nuclear arms race and the Cold War.

Among other major reasons, probably the most definitive was that the United States outspent and out produced the capacity of the Soviet Union driving the communist dictatorship toward economic disaster. This is exemplified by that of capitalist societies being better points to foster radical new ideas and creativity leading to the growth of industry and consumerism which meant greater spending, more money flow, and a greater capacity for development.

The larger appeal of capitalism helped to encircle and contain communism later into the ideological clash and the general domination and success of the United States in comparison to that of its communist opponents. The United States, militarily was more successful than the Soviet track record. While the United States suffered diplomatic and decisive losses at Vietnam and a undecided stalemate and ceasefire in Korea; both campaigns were military victories based on the strategic dominance that the US had by eliminating the Viet Cong from the Vietnamese War, the defeat of the NVA following Operation Linebacker II that brought the North Vietnamese to the Paris negotiating table that formally ended the Vietnam War for the United States and the push back of North Koreans required the assistance of neighboring China to save the communist movement on the Korean peninsula.

In retrospect, the Soviet Union's one and only major military investment into Afghanistan in 1979 ended in total defeat of the Soviet War Machine by Mujahedeen Afghan fighters assisted quietly by American and other European agencies through weapons, supplies, and intelligence.

In many ways, the US proved a stronger case than the Russians for success of anything short of nuclear war and mutually assured destruction. The United States came out of the Cold War as the clear victor with the Soviet Union's collapse.

Now, in the comparison to the current situation that lead to the establishment of ideological blocs in every corner of Human space. The Koslovics were neo-Communists and the Friedens were neo-fascists.

Since the 2060s, major German corporations had been heavily investing in space colonies and space industries including asteroid and comet mining, Helium-3 mining on the Moon, terraforming projects for Mars, and the exploration of distant planets and moons, specifically of Jupiter and Saturn.

The Jovian moons, as they were referred to include a number of Human settlements by as recent of 2160 including the origins of the Friedens secessionist movement on Io, a moon of Jupiter.

A rise in inter-colonial tensions led to a rise in civil unrest and later worker riots against the standards set by that of UN colonial administrators as established by sectarian elements of German corporate states looking to be unregulated by the United Nations due to the Second Outer Space Treaty of 2078 that established basic practices of states and corporations in the matters of space and extra-earthly bodies such as the stars, planets, and other interstellar bodies.

Neo-fascism came to power on Io from the support and unity between corporations and independent colonists against what was considered an encroaching Earth government looking to instill a similar form of mercantilism upon other worldly colonies like that of old Earth empires into the nineteenth century. The organizing slogan of the Friedens was the elimination of "oppressors of Terra Firma." The UN was associated with the dealings and assumptions of unfair treatment of colonies by corporations and Earthly nations. The UN advisers were eventually killed or forced off the planet and led to a year and half incursion between colonial economic-fascists backed by German international corporations, UN Peacekeeping Forces, and a small communist minority formed from the beliefs of a Chechenia-originated Communist belief led by one Vladimir Koslov which similar to Friedens were unhappy with their current associations with that of Earthen nations, however, Koslov was a Earth-born terrorist responsible for a number of dangerous terror plots in Russia, China, and East Europe.

Koslov has remained a wanted man to this day, however, his movement quickly grew in strength in primarily underdeveloped regions on Earth such as the Global South including South America and Africa, the independent Mars colonies, and a minority on the Jovian moons.

It would be a Friedan-rise in South America that would lead to the establishment of FSAN or the Federation of South American Nations and the primary combatant against the United Republic of North American and their MNDI allies, the Multi National Defense Initiative. Koslovics would work primarily from third party association including one of the largest African private military corporations, considered the fourth largest military on Earth, the Sudan Defense United which had major ties with that of the Koslovics movement.

It is from these three camps: the United Nations and the nations that was often referred to as "The Old Guard," the fascist Friedens, and the communist Koslovics that lead to one of the largest and deadliest conflicts in Human history to date.

Given the special nature of the different groups, it helps to discuss the different forces that I was in battle against to show the nature of the war itself.

The Friedens of FSAN were a well-established confederacy of nations with a somewhat effective military and the economic power and resources to sustain an extended conflict. They were very capitalistic in nature but broke ties with the United Nations, preferring to trade among the continent itself, creating its own ring of economics and remaining highly competitive and exclusive due to the continuation of the member-states' own borders and national identities. Oil from Venezuela. Major food products from Columbia. A large consumer market and nuclear power from Brazil and Argentina. Generally, the loss of a major section of the World economy lead to major fluctuation in consumer goods and the monetary trade, however, it was the eventual process of expansion by FSAN that brought North and South America to war. At Mexico and in the Falklands, FSAN attempted to expand their realm of influence and further destroy the dominion of the world by the "Old Guard," primarily the URNA, formerly Canada and the United States of America. The European Union, the Russian Federation, the Chinese Republic, and TPA, the Japanese-led Trans-Pacific Agreement.

Meanwhile, the Sudan Defense United or SDU was a multinational private military corporation born from the 2050 through 2080 African Water Wars and was a large military union under the allegiance of no nation or banner; it is commonly assumed the corporation was born from the growth of the Sahara Desert due to global warming and the collapse of the two Sudan and led to a much larger African conflict in the 2040s.

The association between the Koslovs and the SDU to this day remains unknown, almost a year after the conflict, but in practice the SDU commonly supported non-aligned nations and small communist movements caught in the crossfire between fascist FSAN forces and the capitalist MNDI allied movement.

While the conflict in the Amazon is one of the deadliest in the Earth's history, it did not end decisively in the favor of the URNA. Today, Friedens and Koslovics remain powerful parties and organizations throughout Human Space. It's only a matter of time before war breaks out again.

In the hopes that the lessons gathered from my experiences during the Rainforest Wars maybe of some value to future generations. I consider this a lesson in understanding and comprehending the parties at war and the political and ideological differences between nations and groups that will in the end help develop strategies of combating foes and designing appropriate endgames or end goals in the pacification of conflict between contested organizations. In a historical context, this chapter attempts to understand from a logistical point of view, the manner of which organizations will wage war and why they chose to go to war.

It was Sun Tzu that stated in Art of War, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." Sun Tzu spoke explicitly about knowing your own capabilities and being well-equipped, prepared, and well-informed about your opponents. During my time in the Rainforest Wars, we didn't have that. The Friedens and the Koslovics were still budding in the conflict that was by all accounts their birth right and they're still fighting today. The reason why they lost is because they did not know their enemy, us.

But they were just as prepared for a fight and well equipped, there is a reason why the Amazon Campaign was a bloodbath. Two titanic military forces dishing it out like in the days of old, there hasn't been a war like that since the Second World War or since then. No side was prepared for it, the Rainforest Wars was my century's World War One.

We didn't know our enemy then, but we know our enemy now and we will fight them better now that we do know who and what they are. This is a reminder for future generations that may come close or may come into war, knowing the enemy is the first step to victory.

...

Chapter 2: Know Your Enemy

Words: 2620

Franchise: Halo


	3. Tales of War

Welcome to the third chapter of the Rainforest Wars, technically Chapter Five because I will be skipping certain chapters in the story to show that there is more material than I'm letting on. I cannot write the full story. I don't have the time or motivation for it but I will try to get the major themes across.

In my understanding, I consider the Rainforest Wars to be a sort of clone of The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, a renowned and celebrated war novelist who wrote a lot on the Vietnam War. In my history, the Rainforest Wars is sort of the next century's First World War and the Interplanetary War was the Second World War which led parallel to that of the creation of the United Nations with that of the United Earth Government in 2170 compared to 1945.

Please do Read and Review, this was a collaboration between myself and a buddy of mine who is involved heavily in the GATE (anime) section of FFN, he's a former tanker of the US Marines in Real Life and he was willing to provide me a short account for a story within the bigger tale of the Rainforest Wars. This is his chapter along with some analysis by myself. Give a big thanks to Faust1812 for his help, do check out his work, primarily Here We Go Again. He really does need the recognition and feedback, his work really is a well written piece and should be give where credit is due.

Thanks guys and take care, Happy Early New Year's.

…

["Chapter Five: Tales of War"]

[CPT Jeremiah D. Mendez (URNA Army, O-3)]

…

There was a time where I thought all soldiers were like-minded, gung-ho sons of bitches, ready to march on some unknown terrorist town and blow the living snout out of every shit-mouth baby killer. They were heroes, armed with big smashing guns and ready to tear apart entire bases and entire city blocks with their advanced combat weapons and technology. They were living rock stars on the battlefield spouting lines of cursing spit that rang over the hail of bullets and rockets, fucking A-Team, Shakespearean BS when I finally realized who they really were. Sure, most Hollywood inventions weren't like that but they were written that way in dimwitted comics and the way the military had always been looked upon by the civilian populace, you really couldn't help but think like that but after going through boot camp and going through what war was really like. It opened my eyes.

Soldiers, troopers, whatever, warfighters. The men in camouflage. The truth about the military is that they're just like any other man or woman that you meet on the street though maybe a little more solemn and a little more quiet and polite or the other more beefed up jocks with the build of a bull and are big tough adrenaline junkies, still more restrained than your average shitfaced street fighter. They were like civilians, like people you meet anywhere else. They were just a little more mature about how they lived their lives, the military guys really didn't walk on water or live in the clouds. They were a cool community and were literally brothers and sisters in arms. They took care of each other and they watched each other's backs, even if there were those times where they acted just like college or high school all over again.

Soldiers were just as civilian as the guy you saw walking down the street today and I will bet they are just as diverse. Talk to a vet and they'll tell you all sorts of jacked up tales about their experiences in combat or at war. Some may have been more boring than others but there was always a story to tell.

I had a lot of experience meeting some of these veterans, especially with the older guys in the force when we got deployed to Southern Mexico when the war was really starting to open up. One of these guys was this really awesome tanker, drove one of those metal beasts that seemed unkillable and in really any other sense, they were unkillable.

If you told me beforehand that these tank drivers were made of unbeatable and untampered steel. I would not have believed you coming out in the National Guard, once I served with them, I changed my mind. They were godly and hell 'a-inspiring.

They killed shit and laughed about it, they were like Grim Reapers and yet they were still very much human beings. Complex characters.

One of the more interesting guys I had the pleasure of meeting was Sergeant Spencer Jankowski. Really fun guy you know? Then again most tankers are, you'd think after being crammed inside a metal box for hours you'd go stir crazy. Not these guys, I swear sometimes I think they actually enjoy the hellish conditions tank warfare brings.

Anyways, we had been decided to take it easy next to an old destroyed building, courtesy of the aforementioned tankers. We lit up a small fire and huddle around it, guard watch had already been posted and with four large M4A2 Matthis tanks nearby, well we felt pretty safe. Beautiful piece of machinery there, 125mm gun, the latest in anti-tank countermeasures, and a pretty cozy troop compartment in the rear. It was a good tank, something Jankowski and his crew had preached and boasted about countless times during our campfire stories.

Most of the FSAN guys had given up shortly after the rest of the landing craft had touched down, can't say I blame them. We had better training, better equipment, and better logistics. That didn't mean they were pushovers though, what they lacked in material, they made up for in spirit. Something a lot of the guys around the fire knew all too well, especially Jankowski.

If anyone had a rough go during the battle for Mexico City, it was the tankers. It wasn't so much that they lost any guys, it was the fact with the sheer amount of manpower and material they had taken the brunt of. A man can only keep fighting for so long, eventually the only thing going is his spirit, something I learned Jankowski and his boys had plenty of.

So around the dull glow of the fire, we all went silent as he went to tell his tale. After all it's not often you get to hear things from the tankers' side of things.

His platoon had been dropped off at one side of the city, meanwhile the other three platoons in his company had been dropped off at other sides. The end general idea was to form a sort of square around the city capital. With support from infantry and other assets, they would essentially push towards the middle and cut off any notion of retreat for the FSAN.

A task easier said than done as Jankowski would go on to tell us, every building his platoon came across had been filled to the brim with FSAN troops. They varied from standard soldiers to elite guard troopers. Every one of them was prepared to give their lives to stop our advance, and so they did. At one point Jankowski's tank alone had received no less than 4 consecutive RPG hits.

Thankfully the CAGE countermeasure systems they had installed had stopped most of the projectiles, but a few did manage to get through. Only to ricochet off the front slope or explode harmlessly against the composite armor. Every square, every block, and every street had to be fought meter by bloody meter. In the past this sort of urban fighting would have spelt suicide for armored vehicles, but the M4A2 Matthis was a cut above the rest.

Designed with crew survivability and field sustainment, it had been a radical change from contemporary tank designs. This had been owed to experiences faced by the older Israeli Merkava tanks. It had always been a known fact that infantry and tanks were a time tested and proven combination, so why not incorporate a design that seamlessly allowed that? With the introduction of a rear troop compartment, tanks could level field fortification and positions, meanwhile the infantry could cover any blind spots the tank couldn't reach. This also allowed the engine to take up space behind the most well protected part of the tank, the front.

The FSAN on the other hand, they had to make due with older Russian tanks, T-90's a few 95's. Still a tank is a tank, so when Jankowski had turned a corner and saw a T-95 sitting there all by its lonesome. He still treated it as a major threat, even if said threat was crewed by amateurs who couldn't see that a massive tan tank had come around the corner.

According to him it was a tough little bitch, took a few SABOTs before the turret finally decided enough was enough and cooked off.

One thing to note, during the entire time Jankowski told his story? There wasn't a hint of remorse in his voice, in fact he and his crew had even laughed multiple times. War is a different thing to different men, to some they have to see their victims face as they pull the trigger. Others such as the tankers? All they see are thermal outlines running every which way. To a tank crew war is impersonal, it's a dirty business that someone has to deal in. To hesitate or lose initiative can spell death, and if there was ever a more inglorious way to leave this world, it would be in a destroyed tank.

Eventually they had made it to the city capital, some long unpronounceable name, where things got interesting. Turns out, Jankowski's platoon had pushed further than the rest of the others. All there was to defend the large clock tower in the city capital, was his four tanks and whatever infantry squads they still had.

So for four hours, they just sat there and killed wave after wave of infantry and tanks. Men were cut down piecemeal, it was almost like as if they just didn't care about themselves, only the preservation of their home mattered. Meanwhile enemy tanks began to pile up and form makeshift burning roadblocks, those were a pain in the ass. I would know, I had to stop my trucks at one such roadblock and wait for the tanks to push the wreckage out of the way.

At one point the FSAN had pushed for far into the square that a few daring infantry squads had actually tried to plant detonation-packs on the tanks. Jankowski merely laughed as he told us what followed after, in his own words "red smears on the ground."

Eventually his platoon got the reinforcements they so desperately needed, after four hours of nonstop fighting Jankowski's job was finally done. Of course a few bruises and some dinged up tanks were all they had to answer for their hard work, but it wasn't anything some good maintenance and chow couldn't solve.

It's been a good number of months since I heard the full tale and my memory has never been too great. I remember most of the story but I was never able to really to retell it like he could. The inspirational shit, the awe and the feeling of pressure building on your mind, he was a magnificent storyteller, let me tell you.

His words were like magic, he was true master of his craft, playing with his volume and energy and grammar like that of a magician. It was like a frog in water, hell even a Frogman in water if you get the reference. He was a freaking natural at it; my rewrite of his tale doesn't even do it justice but it was something among other tales that have stuck with me through the war.

There are a lot of things I've seen in life, but war has shown me more in a period of a six month deployment than the thirty years beforehand had shown and taught me since the day I was born. War is a harsh teacher and a harsh master but if you're willing to listen, to read and record, and comprehend what war is about and what it means. You can come out with tales that would seem among the greatest shames of a good fantasy but in realization that all of it was true.

An old writer once stated, a man named Tom Clancy wrote about fiction in a way that I think is reminiscent of what war is truly like. That it isn't reproducible, you have to go through war to understand it truly. But generally that is everything that defines a real experience of individuals, it cannot be reproduced the same exact way for others. Tom Clancy explained the difference between fiction and reality, he said, "The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense." Clancy was referring to the nature of fiction as being a reproduction of reality rather than a separate entity because fiction had to be inspired by something in real life to make sense. Mark Twain, where the original quote came from emphasized this separation between the two profoundly when he is quoted saying, "The only difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to be credible."

It means that for fiction to be believable, it must have truth to it, it must copy reality to seem realistic. Where reality does not have to be "realistic" because it's the original source. The only and full truth.

When I try to replicate the tale of Sergeant Spencer Jankowski, I had to rebuild it from memory and a tale built from his own retelling. In many ways, my work could be considered a work of fiction because I don't know if I retold the story the same word for word. I don't know how he felt when he really told me the story or the emotions and the actual events that took place in that battle.

There are too many variables in war, especially in the Second Battle for Mexico City. When the Army and Marines were called in to retake the Mexican capital from invading FSAN forces. There are too many stories and tales that intertwine in war and this is just about one and I can't reproduce it fully because I wasn't there with Spencer, I don't know what it feels like to be in the exact situation that he was.

My time in Mexico City was not as exciting. The feeling of clearing buildings, killing enemy soldiers in the closest form of combat, CQB you could have gotten involved into. Unlike the tanks, we weren't able to say we felt invincible. We can't say we brought everyone home in one piece. I can't say we were able to laugh the combat off like Spencer and his tankers had been able to.

I lost three of my guys from my squad when we fought to retake the city hospital. We weren't fighting for regions of the city, or sections of street; it got so bad in that battle trying to retake the fucking building. We were fighting from room-to-room, door-to-door. We were not fighting for the building but rather the very rooms of the hospital as if we were in Stalingrad. It was a fucking, bloody massacre.

There really are different experiences in war. Truth be told, I lost count of how many people I killed at twenty-seven in that small battle alone for the shitty hospital. I can't expect the same results and the same emotions that Spencer felt but at least I have a tale or two to share. My point is that there are many faces to war and a million different experiences to battle.

War is not a pretty tale of fantasy, it is very much real and it can be varied what you have to do.

…

Chapter 3: Tales of War (Assumed Chapter Five)

Words: 2395

Franchise: Halo


End file.
